1. Field of the Invention (Technical Field)
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for storing and filling a sandwich. Particularly, the present invention relates to a method and apparatus for storing moist sandwich filling within the confines of bread while prohibiting the transfer of moisture thereto. The present invention which is both inexpensive and cost effective. The method and apparatus of the present invention further permits a user to deposit the filling within the bread in a quick and clean manner.
2. Description of Related Art
Note that the following discussion refers to a number of publications by author(s) and year of publication, and that due to recent publication dates certain publications are not to be considered as prior art vis-a-vis the present invention. Discussion of such publications herein is given for more complete background and is not to be construed as an admission that such publications are prior art for patentability determination purposes.
The ability to separate food elements and later recombine them has been known for sometime. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,213,256, to Cry discloses a contraption for separating a top half of a burger from a bottom half of the burger. While the contraption may be useful for separating hot and cold sections of a burger, the separation of the buns from the moist portions thereof would necessarily require a user to open the contraption and manipulate the contents. This is because a burger or sandwich typically has bread on the top as well as on the bottom. Since the contraption of Cry only separates a upper half from a lower half, the bread would necessarily need to be stored together in either the upper or lower compartment. Since a user would need to open the contraption, remove the divider and build the burger or sandwich, the user is not provided with a quick and easy manner in which to transfer the moist items onto the bread
U.S. Pat. No. 6,228,406, to Borzuta discloses a moisture resistant material which is filled with an inner foodstuff. An outer foodstuff surrounds the jacket. The jacket prevents the transfer of moisture between the two foodstuffs. When a user is ready to combine and eat the two foodstuffs, the user tears away an end piece. The user must then grasp a back tab-like end portion of the jacket. The user must then straddle a back portion of the jacket between two of the users fingers. Then user must then squeeze the two straddling fingers together while simultaneously pulling the jacket from within the outer foodstuff. Since the end portion must first be removed, the outer foodstuff cannot be made to cover the end of the jacket, thus, the inner foodstuff can easily spill and leak from both ends of the outer foodstuff. Also, since the user is pulling the jacket material between his fingers, not only does the user's fingers get outer foodstuff transferred to them (since the jacket material was in direct contact with an inner portion of the outer foodstuff), but the user's fingers stand a significant chance of getting inner foodstuff on them as the last of the inner foodstuff is deposited into the outer foodstuff due to the end of the jacket passing through the user's fingers. Thus, a user should not only wash his hands before handling outer foodstuff in an attempt to dispose inner foodstuff therein, but a user must wash his hands again after the operation to remove the inner and outer foodstuff which is deposited on the users fingers during the filling operation.
While slightly different, U.S. Pat. No. 5,567,455, to Alsbrook Sr. suffers from similar drawbacks. Alsbrook Sr. discloses a sandwich filling contained within a tear away bag, which is itself disposed within an edible baked shell. A user must somehow manage to pull on the tear away bag in such a manner that the bag is torn. In order to keep the filling from getting everywhere, the user must also try to keep the filling in the baked shell while simultaneously removing the torn bag. This can be quite a challenge, particularly if the filling contained within the bag has physical properties which cause the filling to tend to stick to the inside of the tear away bag.
There is thus a need for a method and apparatus which enables moist items to be stored within a bread without the transfer of moisture therebetween, while simultaneously providing a user with a quick and easy manner in which to transfer the moist items into the bread.